Opera Scotland

Samson and Delilah 1967Sadler's Wells Opera

Samson and Delilah had become something of a rarity by the time Sadler's Wells staged it in 1952, and this venerable production was quite successful. It was not taken on tour with any frequency for the simple reason that the unusually bulky and complicated set required three pantechnicons to transport (whereas The Barber of Seville and most other operas only required one).

This final flurry of performances arose because of the availability of two particularly good performers for the title roles, in Ronald Dowd and Ann Howard. They would give the staging's last performances shortly after the company moved to the Coliseum in August 1968.

Cast details are from programmes for 31 October and 14 November in the OperaScotland archive.